'Oppenheimer' Reaches New Milestone, Destroys Disney at Box Office Despite R Rating
Five weeks after its release, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster has reached a new box office milestone.
“Oppenheimer” became the fourth-biggest film of the year and the fifth-biggest R-rated hit of all time this week, Collider reported.
Despite its rating and three-hour runtime, the film surpassed most of Disney’s tentpole offerings this year at the worldwide box office, with the exception of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
“Oppenheimer” sat just shy of $725 million globally as of Friday, according to Box Office Mojo.
“Guardians 3” took third place at the 2023 global box office with $845 million. The other two movies in front of “Oppenheimer” are “Barbie” with $1.29 billion and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $1.36 billion.
Disney’s other releases fell short of expectations, coming nowhere near “Oppenheimer’s” $725 million mark.
These big-budget films included the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid,” Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” Pixar’s “Elementals,” Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Haunted Mansion.”
So far, “Oppenheimer” has grossed $289 million domestically and $435 million overseas.
Aside from 2023 milestones, the $725 million gross places it at No. 5 all time in global box office for R-rated movies, replacing the 2017 horror adaptation “It.”
The four R-rated films ahead of “Oppenheimer” are “The Matrix Reloaded” at $738 million, “Deadpool” at $781 million, “Deadpool 2” at $786 million and “Joker” at $1.066 billion.
Domestically, “Oppenheimer” is in seventh place behind the following R-rated films: “Deadpool 2,” “It,” “Joker,” “American Sniper,” “Deadpool” and “The Passion of the Christ” at No. 1.
For a dialogue-heavy war biopic, Nolan’s latest has surprisingly good legs at the box office, especially against Disney.
Disney has put out six movies so far this year but failed to turn a profit on five of them. The entertainment conglomerate lost $965 million on four of its most high-profile film and streaming projects in 2023, Forbes reported earlier this month.
This is a good sign that audiences are rejecting franchise films and wanting more original content from talented filmmakers like Nolan.
“Oppenheimer” follows the life story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a theoretical physicist tasked with supervising the creation of the atomic bomb to end World War II. Once unleashed onto Japan, the nuclear weapon forever changed the course of history.
The cast also includes Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Florence Pugh.
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